WITHOUT 

A  COUNTRY 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 


Mrs.    Hugh  G.    Dick 


IT  IIAPPEXEI)  THAT  A  UOUXD  SHOT  FROM   THE  EXEMY    HAD  EXTEREU 
OXE  OF  OUR   PORTS  SQUARE.        [PAC.E  23.  | 


THE 
PLEASANT     HOUR     SERIES 

THE  MAN  WITHOUT 
A  COUNTRY 


By 
EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 

HUGO  VON  HOFSTEN 


BREWER,    BARSE    &    CO 
CHICAGO 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

IT  HAPPENED  THAT  A  ROUND  SHOT  FROM  THE  ENEMY  HAD 

ENTERED  ONE  OF  OUR  PORTS  SQUARE  ....  Frontispiece 

"D  —  N  THE  UNITED  STATES!  I  WISH  I  MAY  NEVER  HEAR  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES  AGAIN  !" 8 

"THIS  IS  MY  OWN,  MY  NATIVE  LAND!" l6 

"HOME!   MR.   NOLAN!  !  !i  THOUGHT  YOU   WERE  THE  MAN     . 

WHO  NEVER  WANTED  TO  HEAR  OF  HOME  AGAIN!"  .       .      24 

"HE  SAYS,  'TAKE  us  HOME,  TAKE  us  TO  OUR  OWN  COUNTRY'  '     32 
"TELL  ME  THEIR  NAMES,"  HE  SAID,  AND  HE  POINTED  TO  THE 
STARS  ON  THE  FLAG.  "THE  LAST  I  KNOW  IS  OHIO"    .    .    40 


5000899 


THE  MAN  WITHOUT  A 
COUNTRY 

I  suppose  that  very  few  casual  readers  of  the  "New- 
York  Herald"  of  August  I3th  observed,  in  an  obscure 
corner,  among  the  "Deaths,"  the  announcement, 

"NOLAN.  Died,  on  board  U.  S.  Corvette  Levant, 
Lat.  2°  11"  S.,  Long.  131°  W.,  on  the  nth  of  May, 
Philip  Nolan." 

I  happened  to  observe  it,  because  I  was  stranded  at  the 
old  Mission-House  in  Mackinac,  waiting  for  a  Lake 
Superior  steamer  which  did  not  choose  to  come,  and  I 
was  devouring,  to  the  very  stubble,  all  the  current  lit 
erature  I  could  get  hold  of,  even  down  to  the  deaths  and 
marriages  in  the  "Herald."  My  memory  for  names 
and  people  is  good,  and  the  reader  will  see,  as  he  goes 
on,  that  I  had  reason  enough  to  remember  Philip  No 
lan.  There  are  hundreds  of  readers  who  would  have 
paused  at  that  announcement,  if  the  officer  of  the  Le 
vant  who  reported  it  had  chosen  to  make  it  thus :  "Died, 
May  nth,  'The  Man  without  a  Country."  For  it 
was  as  "The  Man  without  a  Country"  that  poor  Philip 
Nolan  had  generally  been  known  by  the  officers  who 

5 


6  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

had  him  in  charge  during  some  fifty  years,  as,  indeed, 
by  all  the  men  who  sailed  under  them.  I  dare  say 
there  is  many  a  man  who  has  taken  wine  with  him 
once  a  fortnight,  in  a  three  years'  cruise,  who  never 
knew  that  his  name  was  "Nolan,"  or  whether  the  poor 
wretch  had  any  name  at  all. 

There  can  now  be  no  possible  harm  in  telling  this 
poor  creature's  story.  Reason  enough  there  has  been 
till  now,  ever  since  Madison's  Administration  went  out 
in  1817,  for  very  strict  secrecy,  the  secrecy  of  honor 
itself,  among  the  gentlemen  of  the  navy  who  have  had 
Nolan  in  successive  charge.  And  certainly  it  speaks 
well  for  the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  profession  and  the 
personal  honor  of  its  members,  that  to  the  press  this 
man's  story  has  been  wholly  unknown, — and,  I  think, 
to  the  country  at  large  also.  I  have  reason  to  think, 
from  some  investigations  I  made  in  the  Naval  Ar 
chives  when  I  was  attached  to  the  Bureau  of  Construc 
tion,  that  every  official  report  relating  to  him  was  burned 
when  Ross  burned  the  public  buildings  at  Washing 
ton.  One  of  the  Tuckers,  or  possibly  one  of  the  Wat 
sons,  had  Nolan  in  charge  at  the  end  of  the  war;  and 
when,  on  returning  from  his  cruise,  he  reported  at 
Washington  to  one  of  the  Crowninshields, — who  was 
in  the  Navy  Department  when  he  came  home, — he 
found  that  the  Department  ignored  the  whole  business. 
Whether  they  really  knew  nothing  about  it,  or  whether 
it  was  a  Non  mi  ricordo,  determined  on  as  a  piece  of 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  7 

policy,  I  do  not  know.  But  this  I  do  know,  that  since 
1817,  and  possibly  before,  no  naval  officer  has  men 
tioned  Nolan  in  his  report  of  a  cruise. 

But,  as  I  say,  there  is  no  need  for  secrecy  any  longer. 
And  now  the  poor  creature  is  dead,  it  seems  to  me 
worth  while  to  tell  a  little  of  his  story,  by  way  of  show 
ing  young  Americans  of  to-day  what  it  is  to  be 

A  MAN  WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY. 

PHILIP  NOLAN  was  as  fine  a  young  officer  as  there 
was  in  the  "Legion  of  the  West,"  as  the  Western  division 
of  our  army  was  then  called.  When  Aaron  Burr  made 
his  first  dashing  expedition  down  to  New  Orleans  in 
1805,  at  Fort  Massac,  or  somewhere  above  on  the  river, 
he  met,  as  the  Devil  would  have  it,  this  gay,  dashing, 
bright  young  fellow,  at  some  dinner  party,  I  think. 
Burr  marked  him,  talked  to  him,  walked  with  him, 
took  him  a  day  or  two's  voyage  in  his  flat-boat,  and, 
in  short,  fascinated  him.  For  the  next  year  barrack- 
life  was  very  tame  to  poor  Nolan.  He  occasionally 
availed  of  the  permission  the  great  man  had  given  him 
to  write  to  him.  Long,  high-worded,  stilted  letters 
the  poor  boy  wrote  and  re-wrote  and  copied.  But 
never  a  line  did  he  have  in  reply  from  the  gay  deceiver. 
The  other  boys  in  the  garrison  sneered  at  him,  be 
cause  he  sacrificed  in  this  unrequited  affection  for  a 
politician  the  time  which  they  devoted  to  Mononga- 
hela,  sledge,  and  high-low-jack.  Bourbon,  euchre,  and 


8  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

poker  were  still  unknown.  But  one  day  Nolan  had 
his  revenge.  This  time  Burr  came  down  the  river, 
not  as  an  attorney  seeking  a  place  for  his  office,  but 
as  a  disguised  conqueror.  He  had  defeated  I  know 
not  how  many  district  attorneys;  he  had  dined  at  I 
know  not  how  many  public  dinners;  he  had  been 
heralded  in  I  know  not  how  many  Weekly  Arguses; 
and  it  was  rumored  that  he  had  an  army  behind  him 
and  an  empire  before  him.  It  was  a  great  day — his 
arrival — to  poor  Nolan.  Burr  had  not  been  at  the  fort 
an  hour  before  he  sent  for  him.  That  evening  he  asked 
Nolan  to  take  him  out  in  his  skiff,  to  show  him  a  cane- 
brake  or  a  cottonwood  tree,  as  he  said, — really  to  se 
duce  him ;  and  by  the  time  the  sail  was  over,  Nolan  was 
enlisted  body  and  soul.  From  that  time,  though  he 
did  not  yet  know  it,  he  lived  as  "A  Man  without  a 
Country." 

What  Burr  meant  to  do  I  know  no  more  than  you, 
dear  reader.  It  is  none  of  our  business  just  now.  Only, 
when  the  grand  catastrophe  came,  and  Jefferson  and 
the  House  of  Virginia  of  that  day  undertook  to  break 
on  the  wheel  all  the  possible  Clarences  of  the  then 
House  of  York,  by  the  great  treason-trial  at  Richmond, 
some  of  the  lesser  fry  in  that  distant  Mississippi  Val 
ley,  which  was  farther  from  us  than  Puget's  Sound 
is  to-day,  introduced  the  like  novelty  on  their  provin 
cial  stage,  and,  to  while  away  the  monotony  of  the 
summer  at  Fort  Adams,  got  up,  for  spectacles,  a  string 


'n— x  TIII-:  r.\iTKi>  STATICS!   i  \visii    i 

CXITKI)    STATIC    A'',.\IX.' 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  9 

of  court-martials  on  the  officers  there.  One  and  an 
other  of  the  colonels  and  majors  were  tried,  and,  to 
fill  out  the  list,  little  Nolan,  against  whom,  Heaven 
knows,  there  was  evidence  enough, — that  he  was  sick 
of  the  service,  had  been  willing  to  be  false  to  it,  and 
would  have  obeyed  any  order  to  march  anywhither 
with  any  one  who  would  follow  him,  had  the  order 
only  been  signed,  "By  command  of  His  Exc.  A.  Burr." 
The  courts  dragged  on.  The  big  flies  escaped, — 
rightly  for  all  I  know.  Nolan  was  proved  guilty 
enough,  as  I  say;  yet  you  and  I  would  never  have 
heard  of  him,  reader,  but  that,  when  the  president  of 
the  court  asked  him  at  the  close,  whether  he  wished  to 
say  anything  to  show  that  he  had  always  been  faithful 
to  the  United  States,  he  cried  out,  in  a  fit  of  frenzy: 

"D n  the  United  States!  I  wish  I  may  never 

hear  of  the  United  States  again!" 

I  suppose  he  did  not  know  how  the  words  shocked 
old  Colonel  Morgan,  who  was  holding  the  court.  Half 
the  officers  who  sat  in  it  had  served  through  the  Revo 
lution,  and  their  lives,  not  to  say  their  necks,  had  been 
risked  for  the  very  idea  which  he  so  cavalierly  cursed 
in  his  madness.  He,  on  his  part,  had  grown  up  in  the 
West  of  those  days,  in  the  midst  of  "Spanish  plot," 
"Orleans  plot,"  and  all  the  rest.  He  had  been  educated 
on  a  plantation,  where  the  finest  company  was  a  Span 
ish  officer  or  a  French  merchant  from  Orleans.  His 
education,  such  as  it  was,  had  been  perfected  in  com- 


IO  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

mercial  expeditions  to  Vera  Cruz,  and  I  think  he  told 
me  his  father  once  hired  an  Englishman  to  be  a  private 
tutor  for  a  winter  on  the  plantation.  He  had  spent 
half  his  youth  with  an  older  brother,  hunting  horses 
in  Texas ;  and,  in  a  word,  to  him  "United  States"  was 
scarcely  a  reality.  Yet  he  had  been  fed  by  "United 
States"  for  all  the  years  since  he  had  been  in  the  army. 
He  had  sworn  on  his  faith  as  a  Christian  to  be  true  to 
"United  States."  It  was  "United  States"  which  gave 
him  the  uniform  he  wore,  and  the  sword  by  his  side. 
Nay,  my  poor  Nolan,  it  was  only  because  "United 
States"  had  picked  you  out  first  as  one  of  her  own  con 
fidential  men  of  honor,  that  "A.  Burr"  cared  for  you 
a  straw  more  than  for  the  flat-boat  men  who  sailed 
his  ark  for  him.  I  do  not  excuse  Nolan;  I  only  ex 
plain  to  the  reader  why  he  damned  his  country,  and 
wished  he  might  never  hear  her  name  again. 

He  never  did  hear  her  name  but  once  again.  From 
that  moment,  September  23,  1807,  till  the  day  he  died, 
May  11,  1863,  he  never  heard  her  name  again.  For 
that  half  century  and  more  he  was  a  man  without  a 
country. 

Old  Morgan,  as  I  said,  was  terribly  shocked.  If 
Nolan  had  compared  George  Washington  to  Benedict 
Arnold,  or  had  cried,  "God  save  King  George,"  Mor 
gan  would  not  have  felt  worse.  He  called  the  court 
into  his  private  room,  and  returned  in  fifteen  minutes, 
with  a  face  like  a  sheet,  to  say, — 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  II 

"Prisoner,  hear  the  sentence  of  the  Court.  The 
Court  decides,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  President 
that  you  never  hear  the  name  of  the  United  States 
again." 

Nolan  laughed.  But  nobody  else  laughed.  Old 
Morgan  was  too  solemn,  and  the  whole  room  was 
hushed  dead  as  night  for  a  minute.  Even  Nolan  lost 
his  swagger  in  a  moment.  Then  Morgan  added :  "Mr. 
Marshal,  take  the  prisoner  to  Orleans  in  an  armed  boat, 
and  deliver  him  to  the  naval  commander  there." 

The  marshal  gave  his  orders,  and  the  prisoner  was 
taken  out  of  court. 

"Mr.  Marshal,"  continued  old  Morgan,  "see  that 
no  one  mentions  the  United  States  to  the  prisoner.  Mr. 
Marshal,  make  my  respects  to  Lieutenant  Mitchell 
at  Orleans,  and  request  him  to  order  that  no  one  shall 
mention  the  United  States  to  the  prisoner  while  he  is 
on  board  ship.  You  will  receive  your  written  orders 
from  the  officer  on  duty  here  this  evening.  The  court 
is  adjourned  without  day." 

I  have  always  supposed  that  Colonel  Morgan  him 
self  took  the  proceedings  of  the  court  to  Washington 
City,  and  explained  them  to  Mr.  Jefferson.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  President  approved  them, — certain,  that 
is,  if  I  may  believe  the  men  who  say  they  have  seen  his 
signature.  Before  the  Nautilus  got  round  from  New 
Orleans  to  the  Northern  Atlantic  coast  with  the  pris- 


12  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

oner  on  board,  the  sentence  had  been  approved,  and 
he  was  a  man  without  a  country. 

The  plan  then  adopted  was  substantially  the  same 
which  was  necessarily  followed  ever  after.  Perhaps 
it  was  suggested  by  the  necessity  of  sending  him  by 
water  from  Fort  Adams  and  Orleans.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Navy — it  must  have  been  the  first  Crowninshield, 
though  he  is  a  man  I  do  not  remember — was  requested 
to  put  Nolan  on  board  a  Government  vessel  bound  on 
a  long  cruise,  and  to  direct  that  he  should  be  only  so 
far  confined  there  as  to  make  it  certain  that  he  never 
saw  or  heard  of  the  country.  We  had  few  long  cruises 
then,  and  the  navy  was  very  much  out  of  favor;  and  as 
almost  all  of  this  story  is  traditional,  as  I  have  ex 
plained,  I  do  not  know  certainly  what  his  first  cruise 
was.  But  the  commander  to  whom  he  was  intrusted — 
perhaps  it  was  Tingey  or  Shaw,  though  I  think  it  was 
one  of  the  younger  men, — we  are  all  old  enough  now — 
regulated  the  etiquette  and  the  precautions  of  the  affair, 
and  according  to  his  scheme  they  were  carried  out,  I 
suppose,  till  Nolan  died. 

When  I  was  second  officer  of  the  Intrepid  some 
thirty  years  after,  I  saw  the  original  paper  of  instruc 
tions.  I  have  been  sorry  ever  since  that  I  did  not  copy 
the  whole  of  it.  It  ran,  however,  much  in  this  way: 
"Washington,"  (with  the  date,  which  must 
have  been  late  in  1807.) 

"SIR, — You  will  receive  from  Lt.  Neale  the  person 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  13 

of  Philip  Nolan,  late  a  Lieutenant  in  the  United  States 
Army. 

"This  person  on  his  trial  by  court-martial  expressed 
with  an  oath  the  wish  that  he  might  never  hear  of  the 
United  States  again. 

"The  court  sentenced  him  to  have  his  wish  fulfilled. 

"For  the  present,  the  execution  of  the  order  is  in 
trusted  by  the  President  to  this  department. 

"You  will  take  the  prisoner  on  board  your  ship, 
and  keep  him  there  with  such  precautions  as  shall 
prevent  his  escape. 

"You  will  provide  him  with  such  quarters,  rations, 
and  clothing  as  would  be  proper  for  an  officer  of  his 
late  rank,  if  he  were  a  passenger  on  your  vessel  on  the 
business  of  his  Government. 

"The  gentlemen  on  board  will  make  any  arange- 
ments  agreeable  to  themselves  regarding  his  society. 
He  is  to  be  exposed  to  no  indignity  of  any  kind,  nor  is  he 
ever  unnecessarily  to  be  reminded  that  he  is  a  prisoner. 

"But  under  no  circumstances  is  he  ever  to  hear  of 
his  country  or  to  see  any  information  regarding  it; 
and  you  will  especially  caution  all  the  officers  under 
your  command  to  take  care  that,  in  the  various  indul 
gences  which  may  be  granted,  this  rule,  in  which  his 
punishment  is  involved,  shall  not  be  broken. 

"It  is  the  intention  of  the  Government  that  he  shall 
never  again  see  the  country  which  he  has  disowned. 


14  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

Before  the  end  of  your  cruise  you  will  receive  orders 
which  will  give  effect  to  this  intention. 

"Resp'y  yours, 

"W.  SOUTHARD,  for  the 
"Sec'y  of  the  Navy." 

If  I  had  only  preserved  the  whole  of  this  paper, 
there  would  be  no  break  in  the  beginning  of  my  sketch 
of  this  story.  For  Captain  Shaw,  if  it  was  he,  handed 
it  to  his  successor  in  the  charge,  and  he  to  his,  and 
I  suppose  the  commander  of  the  Levant  has  it  to-day 
as  his  authority  for  keeping  this  man  in  his  mild  cus 
tody. 

The  rule  adopted  on  board  the  ships  on  which  I 
have  met  "The  Man  without  a  Country"  was,  I  think, 
transmitted  from  the  beginning.  No  mess  liked  to 
have  him  permanently,  because  his  presence  cut  off  all 
talk  of  home  or  of  the  prospect  of  return,  of  politics 
or  letters,  of  peace  or  of  war, — cut  off  more  than  half 
the  talk  men  like  to  have  at  sea.  But  it  was  always 
thought  too  hard  that  he  should  never  meet  the  rest 
of  us,  except  to  touch  hats,  and  we  finally  sank  into 
one  system.  He  was  not  permitted  to  talk  with  the 
men  unless  an  officer  was  by.  With  officers  he  had  un 
restrained  intercourse,  as  far  as  they  and  he  chose.  But 
he  grew  shy,  though  he  had  favorites:  I  was  one. 
Then  the  captain  always  asked  him  to  dinner  on  Mon 
day.  Every  mess  in  succession  took  up  the  invitation 
in  its  turn.  According  to  the  size  of  the  ship,  you  had 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  15 

him  at  your  mess  more  or  less  often  at  dinner.  His 
breakfast  he  ate  in  his  own  state-room, — he  always 
had  a  state-room, — which  was  where  a  sentinel,  or  some 
body  on  the  watch,  could  see  the  door.  And  whatever  else 
he  ate  or  drank  he  ate  or  drank  alone.  Sometimes,  when 
the  marines  or  sailors  had  any  special  jollification,  they 
were  permitted  to  invite  "Plain-Buttons,"  as  they 
called  him.  Then  Nolan  was  sent  with  some  officer, 
and  the  men  wrere  forbidden  to  speak  of  home  while 
he  was  there.  I  believe  the  theory  was,  that  the  sight 
of  his  punishment  did  them  good.  They  called  him 
"Plain-Buttons,"  because,  while  he  always  chose  to  wear 
a  regulation  army-uniform,  he  was  not  permitted  to 
wear  the  army-button,  for  the  reason  that  it  bore  either 
the  initials  or  the  insignia  of  the  country  he  had  dis 
owned. 

I  remember,  soon  after  I  joined  the  navy,  I  was 
on  shore  with  some  of  the  older  officers  from  our  ship 
and  from  the  Brandywine,  which  we  had  met  at  Alex 
andria.  We  had  leave  to  make  a  party  and  go  up  to 
Cairo  and  the  Pyramids.  As  we  jogged  along  (you 
went  on  donkeys  then)  some  of  the  gentlemen  (we  boys 
called  them  "Dons,"  but  the  phrase  was  long  since 
changed)  fell  to  talking  about  Nolan,  and  some  one 
told  the  system  which  was  adopted  from  the  first  about 
his  books  and  other  reading.  As  he  was  almost  never 
permitted  to  go  on  shore,  even  though  the  vessel  lay  in 
port  for  months,  his  time,  at  the  best,  hung  heavy;  and 


1 6  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

everybody  was  permitted  to  lend  him  books,  if  they 
were  not  published  in  America  and  made  no  allusion 
to  it.  These  were  common  enough  in  the  old  days, 
when  people  in  the  other  hemisphere  talked  of  the 
United  States  as  little  as  wre  do  of  Paraguay.  He  had 
almost  all  the  foreign  papers  that  came  into  the  ship, 
sooner  or  later;  only  somebody  must  go  over  them 
first,  and  cut  out  any  advertisment  or  stray  paragraph 
that  alluded  to  America.  This  was  a  little  cruel  some 
times,  when  the  back  of  what  was  cut  out  might  be 
as  innocent  as  Hesiod.  Right  in  the  midst  of  one  of 
Napoleon's  battles,  or  one  of  Canning's  speeches,  poor 
Nolan  would  find  a  great  hole,  because  on  the  back 
of  the  page  of  that  paper  there  had  been  an  advertise 
ment  of  a  packet  for  New  York,  or  a  scrap  from  the 
President's  message.  I  say  this  was  the  first  time  I 
€ver  heard  of  this  plan,  which  afterwards  I  had  enough, 
and  more  than  enough,  to  do  with.  I  remember  it, 
because  poor  Phillips,  who  was  of  the  party,  as  soon 
as  the  allusion  to  reading  was  made,  told  a  story  of 
something  which  happened  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
on  Nolan's  first  voyage ;  and  it  is  the  only  thing  I  ever 
knew  of  that  voyage.  They  had  touched  at  the  Cape, 
and  had  done  the  civil  thing  with  the  English  Admiral 
and  the  fleet,  and  then,  leaving  for  a  long  cruise  up 
the  Indian  Ocean,  Phillips  had  borrowed  a  lot  of  Eng 
lish  books  from  an  officer,  which,  in  those  days,  as  in 
deed  in  these,  was  quite  a  windfall.  Among  them,  as 


"THIS    IS    MY    OWN.    MY    NATIVE    I.ANh!"        |l'A<iK    I S.  | 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  ij 

the  Devil  would  order,  was  the  "Lay  of  the  Last  Min 
strel,"  which  they  had  all  of  them  heard  of,  but  which 
most  of  them  had  never  seen.  I  think  it  could  not 
have  been  published  long.  Well,  nobody  thought 
there  could  be  any  risk  of  anything  national  in  that, 
though  Phillips  swore  old  Shaw  had  cut  out  the 
"Tempest"  from  Shakespeare  before  he  let  Nolan  have 
it  because  he  said  "the  Bermudas  ought  to  be  ours 
and,  by  Jove,  should  be  one  day."  So  Nolan  was  per 
mitted  to  join  the  circle  one  afternoon  when  a  lot  of 
them  sat  on  deck  smoking  and  reading  aloud.  People 
do  not  do  such  things  so  often  now,  but  when  I  was 
young  we  got  rid  of  a  great  deal  of  time  so.  Well, 
so  it  happened  that  in  his  turn  Nolan  took  the  book 
and  read  to  the  others;  and  he  read  very  well,  as  I 
know.  Nobody  in  the  circle  knew  a  line  of  the  poem, 
only  it  was  all  magic  and  Border  chivalry,  and  was 
ten  thousand  years  ago.  Poor  Nolan  read  steadily 
through  the  fifth  canto,  stopped  a  minute  and  drank 
something,  and  then  began,  without  a  thought  of  what 
was  coming, — 

"Breathes  there  the  man,  with  soul  so  dead, 
Who  never  to  himself  hath  said" — 

It  seems  impossible  to  us  that  anybody  ever  heard 
this  for  the  first  time;  but  all  these  fellows  did  then, 
and  poor  Nolan  himself  went  on,  still  unconsciously  or 
mechanically, — 


1 8  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

"This  is  my  own,  my  native  land !" 

Then  they  all  saw  something  was  to  pay;  but  he 
expected  to  get  through,  I  suppose,  turned  a  little  pale, 
but  plunged  on, — 

"Whose  heart  hath  ne'er  within  him  ourned, 
As  home  his  footsteps  he  hath  turned 

From  wandering  on  a  foreign  strand? — 
If  such  there  breathe,  go,  mark  him  well." 

By  this  time  the  men  were  all  beside  themselves, 
wishing  there  was  any  way  to  make  him  turn  over  two 
pages;  but  he  had  not  quite  presence  of  mind  for  that; 
he  gagged  a  little,  colored  crimson,  and  staggered  on, 
"For  him  no  minstrel  raptures  swell; 
High  though  his  titles,  proud  his  name, 
Boundless  his  wealth  as  wish  can  claim, 
Despite  these  titles,  power  and  pelf, 
The  wretch,  concentred  all  in  self," — 

and  here  the  poor  fellow  choked,  could  not  go  on,  but 
started  up,  swung  the  book  into  the  sea,  vanished  into 
his  state-room,  "and  by  Jove,"  said  Phillips,  "we  did 
not  see  him  for  two  months  again.  And  I  had  to 
make  up  some  beggarly  story  to  that  English  surgeon 
why  I  did  not  return  his  Walter  Scott  to  him." 

That  story  shows  about  the  time  when  Nolan's  brag 
gadocio  must  have  broken  down.  At  first,  they  said, 
he  took  a  very  high  tone,  considered  his  imprisonment 
a  mere  farce,  affected  to  enjoy  the  voyage,  and  all  that; 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  19 

but  Phillips  said  that  after  he  came  out  of  his  state 
room  he  never  was  the  same  man  again.  He  never 
read  aloud  again,  unless  it  was  the  Bible  or  Shake 
speare,  or  something  else  he  was  sure  of.  But  it  was 
not  that  merely.  He  never  entered  in  with  the  other 
young  men  exactly  as  a  companion  again.  He  was 
always  shy  afterwards,  when  I  knew  him, — very  seldom 
spoke,  unless  he  was  spoken  to,  except  to  a  very  few 
friends.  He  lighted  up  occasionally, — I  remember 
late  in  his  life  hearing  him  fairly  eloquent  on  something 
which  had  been  suggested  to  him  by  one  of  Flechier's 
sermons, — but  generally  he  had  the  nervous,  tired  look 
of  a  heart-wounded  man. 

When  Captain  Shaw  was  coming  home, — if,  as  I  say, 
it  was  Shaw, — rather  to  the  surprise  of  everybody  they 
made  one  of  the  Windward  Islands,  and  lay  off  and  on 
for  nearly  a  week.  The  boys  said  the  officers  were  sick 
of  salt-junk,  and  meant  to  have  turtle  soup  before  they 
came  home.  'But  after  several  days  the  Warren  came 
to  the  same  rendezvous ;  they  exchanged  signals ;  she  sent 
to  Phillips  and  these  homeward-bound  men  letters  and 
papers,  and  told  them  she  was  outward  bound,  perhaps 
to  the  Mediterranean,  and  took  poor  Nolan  and  his 
traps  on  the  boat  back  to  try  his  second  cruise.  He 
looked  very  blank  when  he  was  told  to  get  ready  to  join 
her.  He  had  known  enough  of  the  signs  of  the  sky  to 
know  that  till  that  moment  he  was  going  "home."  But 
this  was  a  distinct  evidence  of  something  he  had  not 


2O  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

thought  of,  perhaps, — that  there  was  no  going  home  for 
him,  even  to  a  prison.  And  this  was  the  first  of  some 
twenty  such  transfers,  which  brought  him  sooner  or 
later  into  half  our  best  vessels,  but  which  kept  him  all 
his  life  at  least  some  hundred  miles  from  the  country 
he  had  hoped  he  might  never  hear  of  again. 

It  may  have  been  on  that  second  cruise — it  was  once 
when  he  was  up  the  Mediterranean — that  Mrs.  Graff, 
the  celebrated  Southern  beauty  of  those  days,  danced 
with  him.  They  had  been  lying  a  long  time  in  the  Bay 
of  Naples,  and  the  officers  were  very  intimate  in  the 
English  fleet,  and  there  had  been  great  festivities,  and 
our  men  thought  they  must  give  a  great  ball  on  board 
the  ship.  How  they  ever  did  it  on  board  the  Warren  I 
am  sure  I  do  not  know.  Perhaps  it  was  not  the  War 
ren,  or  perhaps  ladies  did  not  take  up  so  much  room  as 
they  do  now.  They  wanted  to  use  Nolan's  state-room 
for  something,  and  they  hated  to  do  it  without  asking 
him  to  the  ball;  so  the  captain  said  they  might  ask  him, 
if  they  would  be  responsible  that  he  did  not  talk  with 
the  wrong  people,  "who  would  give  him  intelligence." 
So  the  dance  went  on,  the  finest  party  that  had  ever 
been  known,  I  dare  say;  for  I  never  heard  of  a  man- 
of-war  ball  that  was  not.  For  ladies  they  had  the 
family  of  the  American  consul,  one  or  two  travellers 
who  had  adventured  so  far,  and  a  nice  bevy  of  English 
girls  and  matrons,  perhaps  Lady  Hamilton  herself. 

Well,  different  officers  relieved  each  other  in  stand- 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  21 

ing  and  talking  with  Nolan  in  a  friendly  way,  so  as  to 
be  sure  that  nobody  else  spoke  to  him.  The  dancing 
went  on  with  spirit,  and  after  a  while  even  the  fellows 
who  took  this  honorary  guard  of  Nolan  ceased  to  fear 
any  contre-temps.  Only  when  some  English  lady — 
Lady  Hamilton,  as  I  said,  perhaps — called  for  a  set 
of  "American  dancers,"  an  odd  thing  happened.  Every 
body  then  danced  contra-dances.  The  black  band, 
nothing  loath,  conferred  as  to  what  "American  dances" 
were,  and  started  off  with  "Virginia  Reel,"  which  they 
'followed  with  "Money- Musk,"  which,  in  its  turn  in 
those  days,  should  have  been  followed  by  "The  Old 
Thirteen."  But  just  as  Dick,  the  leader,  tapped  for  his 
fiddlers  to  begin,  and  bent  forward,  about  to  say,  in 
true  negro  state,  "The  Old  Thirteen,"  gentlemen  and 
ladies !"  as  he  had  said,  "  'Virginny  Reel,'  if  you  please  1" 
"  'Money-Musk,'  if  you  please!"  the  captain's  boy  tap 
ped  him  on  the  shoulder,  whispered  to  him,  and  he 
did  not  announce  the  name  of  the  dance;  he  merely 
bowed,  began  on  the  air,  and  they  all  fell  to, — the  of 
ficers  teaching  the  English  girls  the  figure,  but  not 
telling  them  why  it  had  no  name. 

But  that  is  not  the  story  I  started  to  tell. — As  the 
dancing  went  on,  Nolan  and  our  fellows  all  got  at  ease, 
as  I  said, — so  much  so  that  it  seemed  quite  natural 
for  him  to  bow  to  that  splendid  Mrs.  Graff,  and  say,— 

"I  hope  you  have  not  forgotten  me,  Miss  Rutledge. 
Shall  I  have  the  honor  of  dancing?" 


22  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

He  did  it  so  quickly,  that  Shubrick,  who  was  by  him, 
could  not  hinder  him.  She  laughed  and  said, — 

"I  am  not  Miss  Rutledge  any  longer,  Mr.  Nolan; 
but  I  will  dance  all  the  same,"  just  nodded  to  Shu- 
brick,  as  if  to  say  he  must  leave  Mr.  Nolan  to  her, 
and  led  him  off  to  the  place  where  the  dance  was 
forming. 

Nolan  thought  he  had  got  his  chance.  He  had 
known  her  at  Philadelphia,  and  at  other  places  had  met 
her,  and  this  was  a  godsend.  You  could  not  talk  in 
contra-dances,  as  you  do  in  cotillons,  or  even  in  the 
pauses  of  waltzing;  but  there  were  chances  for  tongues 
and  sounds,  as  well  as  for  eyes  and  blushes.  He  began 
with  her  travels,  and  Europe,  and  Vesuvius,  and  the 
French;  and  then,  when  they  had  worked  down,  and 
had  that  long  talking-time  at  the  bottom  of  the  set,  he 
said  boldly, — a  little  pale,  she  said,  as  she  told  me  the 
story,  years  after, — 

"And  what  do  you  hear  from  home,  Mrs.  Graff?" 

And  that  splendid  creature  looked  through  him. 
Jove !  how  she  must  have  looked  through  him !  "Home !  I 
Mr.  Nolan!!!  I  thought  you  were  the  man  who  nevei 
wanted  to  hear  of  home  again!" — and  she  walked  di 
rectly  up  the  deck  to  her  husband,  and  left  poor  Nolan 
alone,  as  he  always  was, — He  did  not  dance  again. 

I  cannot  give  any  history  of  him  in  order;  nobody 
can  now;  and,  indeed,  I  am  not  trying  to.  These  are 
the  traditions,  which  I  sort  out,  as  I  believe  them,  from 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  23 

the  myths  which  have  been  told  about  this  man  for 
forty  years.  The  lies  that  have  been  told  about  him 
are  legion.  The  fellows  used  to  say  he  was  the  "Iron 
Mask;"  and  poor  George  Pons  went  to  his  grave  in 
the  belief  that  this  was  the  author  of  "Junius,"  who 
was  being  punished  for  his  celebrated  libel  on  Thomas 
Jefferson.  Pons  was  not  very  strong  in  the  historical 
line.  A  happier  story  than  either  of  these  I  have  told 
is  of  the  War.  That  came  along  soon  after.  I  have 
heard  this  affair  told  in  three  or  four  ways, — and,  in 
deed,  it  may  have  happened  more  than  once.  But 
which  ship  it  was  on  I  cannot  tell.  However,  in  one, 
at  least,  of  the  great  frigate-duels  with  the  English,  in 
which  the  navy  was  really  baptized,  it  happened  that 
a  round  shot  from  the  enemy  entered  one  of  our  ports 
square,  and  took  right  down  the  officer  of  the  gun  him 
self,  and  almost  every  man  of  the  gun's  crew.  Now 
you  may  say  what  you  choose  about  courage,  but  that 
is  not  a  nice  thing  to  see.  But  as  the  men  who  were  not 
killed  picked  themselves  up,  and  the  surgeon's  people 
were  carrying  off  the  bodies,  there  appeared  Nolan, 
in  his  shirt-sleeves,  with  the  rammer  in  his  hand,  and, 
just  as  if  he  had  been  the  officer,  told  them  off  with 
authority, — who  should  go  to  the  cockpit  with  the 
wounded  men,  who  should  stay  with  him, — perfectly 
cheery,  and  with  that  way  which  makes  men  feel  sure 
all  is  right  and  is  going  to  be  right.  And  he  finished 
loading  the  gun  with  his  own  hands,  aimed  it,  and  bade 


24  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

the  men  fire.  And  there  he  stayed,  captain  of  that  gun, 
keeping  those  fellows  in  spirits,  till  the  enemy  struck, — 
sitting  on  the  carriage  while  the  gun  was  cooling, 
though  he  was  exposed  all  the  time — showing  them 
easier  ways  to  handle  heavy  shot, — making  the  raw 
hands  laugh  at  their  own  blunders, — and  when  the  gun 
cooled  again,  getting  it  loaded  and  fired  twice  as  often 
as  any  other  gun  on  the  ship.  The  captain  walked  for 
ward,  by  way  of  encouraging  the  men,  and  Nolan 
touched  his  hat  and  said, — 

"I  am  showing  them  how  we  do  this  in  the  artillery, 


sir." 


And  this  is  a  part  of  the  story  where  all  the  legends 
agree:  that  the  Commodore  said, — 

"I  see  you  do,  and  I  thank  you,  sir;  and  I  shall  never 
forget  this  day,  sir,  and  you  never  shall,  sir." 

And  after  the  whole  thing  was  over,  and  he  had 
the  Englishman's  sword,  in  the  midst  of  the  state  and 
ceremony  of  the  quarterdeck,  he  said, — 

"Where  is  Mr.  Nolan?  Ask  Mr.  Nolan  to  come 
here." 

And  when  Nolan  came,  the  captain  said, — 

"Mr.  Nolan,  we  are  all  very  grateful  to  you  to-day; 
you  are  one  of  us  to-day;  you  will  be  named  in  the  dis 
patches." 

And  then  the  old  man  took  off  his  own  sword  of 
ceremony,  and  gave  it  to  Nolan,  and  made  him  put  it 


"HOME!  !  MR.  NOI.AN  !  !  !  i  THOUGHT  YOU  WERE  THE  MAX  WHO 

NEVER    WANTED   TO    1 1  EAR   (IF    HOME    AC,AI.\!"        [I'AC.E    22.] 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  25 

on.  The  man  told  me  this  who  saw  it.  Nolan  cried 
like  a  baby,  and  well  he  might.  He  had  not  worn  a 
sword  since  that  infernal  day  at  Fort  Adams.  But 
always  afterwards,  on  accasions  of  ceremony,  he  wore 
that  quaint  old  French  sword  of  the  Commodore's. 

The  captain  did  mention  him  in  the  despatches.  It 
was  always  said  he  asked  that  he  might  be  pardoned. 
He  wrote  a  special  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  But 
nothing  ever  came  of  it.  As  I  said,  that  was  about 
the  time  when  they  began  to  ignore  the  whole  transac 
tion  at  Washington,  and  when  Nolan's  imprisonment 
began  to  carry  itself  on  because  there  was  nobody  to 
stop  it  without  any  new  orders  from  home. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  he  was  with  Porter  when  he 
took  possession  of  the  Nukahiwa  Islands.  Not  this 
Porter,  you  know,  but  old  Porter,  his  father,  Essex 
Porter, — that  is  the  old  Essex  Porter  not  this  Essex. 
As  an  artillery  officer,  who  had  seen  service  in  the  West, 
Nolan  knew  more  about  fortifications,  embrasures,  ra- 
velines,  stockades,  and  all  that,  than  any  of  them  did; 
and  he  worked  with  a  right  good  will  in  fixing  that 
battery  all  right.  I  have  always  thought  it  was  a  pity 
Porter  did  not  leave  him  in  command  there  with  Gam 
ble.  That  would  have  settled  all  the  question  about  his 
punishment.  We  should  have  kept  the  islands,  and  at 
this  moment  we  should  have  one  station  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Our  French  friends,  too,  when  they  wanted 
this  little  watering-place,  would  have  found  it  was  pre- 


26  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

occupied.     But  Madison  and  the  Virginians,  of  course, 
flung  all  that  away. 

All  that  was  near  fifty  years  ago.  If  Nolan  was 
thirty  then,  he  must  have  been  near  eighty  when  he 
died.  He  looked  sixty  when  he  was  forty.  But  he 
never  seemed  to  me  to  change  a  hair  afterwards.  As  I 
imagine  his  life,  from  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  of  it, 
he  must  have  been  in  every  sea,  and  yet  almost  never  on 
land.  He  must  have  known  in  a  formal  way,  more 
officers  in  our  service  than  any  man  living  knows.  He 
told  me  once,  with  a  grave  smile,  that  no  man  in  the 
world  lived  so  methodical  a  life  as  he.  "You  know 
the  boys  say  I  am  the  Iron  Mask,  and  you  know  how 
busy  he  was."  He  said  it  did  not  do  for  any  one  to  try 
to  read  all  the  time,  more  than  to  do  anything  else  all 
the  time;  but  that  he  read  just  five  hours  a  day. 
"Then,"  he  said,  "I  keep  up  my  note-books,  writing 
in  them  at  such  and  such  hours  from  what  I  have  been 
reading;  and  I  include  in  them  my  scrap-books." 
These  were  very  curious  indeed.  He  had  six  or  eight, 
of  different  subjects.  There  was  one  of  History,  one 
of  Natural  Science,  one  which  he  called  "Odds  and 
Ends."  But  they  were  not  merely  books  of  extracts 
from  newspapers.  They  had  bits  of  plants  and  rib 
bons,  shells  tied  on,  and  carved  scraps  of  bone  and  wood, 
which  he  had  taught  the  men  to  cut  for  him,  and  they 
were  beautifully  illustrated.  He  drew  admirably.  He 
had  some  of  the  funniest  drawings  there,  and  some  of 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  27 

the  most  pathetic,  that  I  have  ever  seen  in  my  life. 
I  wonder  who  will  have  Nolan's  scrap-books. 

Well,  he  said  his  reading  and  his  notes  were  his  pro 
fession,  and  that  they  took  five  hours  and  two  hours  re 
spectively  of  each  day.  "Then,"  said  he,  "every  man 
should  have  a  diversion  as  well  as  a  profession.  My  Nat 
ural  History  is  my  diversion."  That  took  two  hours  a  day 
more.  The  men  used  to  bring  him  birds  and  fish,  but 
on  a  long  cruise  he  had  to  satisfy  himself  with  centi 
pedes  and  cockroaches  and  such  small  game.  He  was 
the  only  naturalist  I  ever  met  who  knew  anything  about 
the  habits  of  the  house-fly  and  the  mosquito.  All  those 
people  can  tell  you  whether  they  are  Lepidoptera  or 
Steptopotera]  but  as  for  telling  how  you  can  get  rid  of 
them,  or  how  they  get  away  from  you  when  you  strike 
them,— why  Linnaeus  knew  as  little  of  that  as  John 
Foy,  the  idiot,  did.  These  nine  hours  made  Nolan's 
regular  daily  "occupation."  The  rest  of  the  time  he 
talked  or  walked  Till  he  grew  very  old,  he  went 
aloft  a  great  deal.  He  always  kept  up  his  exercise  and 
I  never  heard  that  he  was  ill.  If  any  other  man  wcs 
ill,  he  was  the  kindest  nurse  in  the  world;  and  he  knew 
more  than  half  the  surgeons  do.  Then  if  anybody  was 
sick  or  died,  or  if  the  captain  wanted  him  to  on  any 
other  occasion,  he  was  always  ready  to  read  prayers. 
I  have  remarked  that  he  read  beautifully. 

My  own  acquaintance  with  Philip  Nolan  began  six 
or  eight  years  after  the  War,  on  my  first  voyage  after  I 


28  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

was  appointed  a  midshipman.  It  was  in  the  first  days 
after  our  Slave-Trade  treaty,  while  the  Reigning 
House,  which  was  still  the  house  of  Virginia,  had  still 
a  sort  of  sentimentalism  about  the  suppression  of  the 
horrors  of  the  Middle  Passage,  and  something  was  some 
times  done  that  way.  We  were  in  the  South  Atlantic 
on  that  business.  From  the  time  I  joined,  I  believe  I 
thought  Nolan  was  a  sort  of  lay  chaplain, — a  chaplain 
with  a  blue  coat.  I  never  asked  about  him.  Every 
thing  in  the  ship  was  strange  to  me.  I  knew  it  was 
green  to  ask  questions,  and  I  suppose  I  thought  there 
was  a  "Plain-Buttons"  on  every  ship.  We  had  him 
to  dine  in  our  mess  once  a  week,  and  the  caution  was 
given  that  on  that  day  nothing  was  to  be  said  about 
home.  But  if  they  had  told  us  not  to  say  anything  about 
the  planet  Mars  or  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  I  should 
not  have  asked  why;  there  were  a  great  many  things 
which  seemed  to  me  to  have  as  little  reason.  I  first 
came  to  understand  anything  about  "the  man  without 
a  country"  one  day  when  we  overhauled  a  dirty  little 
schooner  which  had  slaves  on  board.  An  officer  was 
sent  to  take  charge  of  her,  and  after  a  few  minutes  he 
sent  back  his  boat  to  ask  that  some  one  might  be  sent  him 
who  could  speak  Portuguese.  We  were  all  looking 
over  the  rail  when  the  message  came,  and  we  all  wished 
we  could  interpret,  when  the  captain  asked  who  spoke 
Portuguese.  But  none  of  the  officers  did;  and  just  as 
the  captain  was  sending  forward  to  ask  if  any  of  the 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  29 

people  could,  Nolan  stepped  out  and  said  he  should  be 
glad  to  interpret,  if  the  captain  wished,  as  he  under 
stood  the  language.  The  captain  thanked  him,  fitted 
out  anoth  r  boat  with  him,  and  in  this  boat  it  was  my 
luck  to  go. 

When  we  got  there,  it  was  such  a  scene  as  you  seldom 
see,  and  never  want  to.  Nastiness  beyond  account,  and 
chaos  run  loose  in  the  midst  of  the  nastiness.  There 
were  not  a  great  many  of  the  negroes;  but  by  way  of 
making  what  there  were  understand  that  they  were 
free,  Vaughan  had  had  their  handcuffs  and  ankle-cuffs 
knocked  off,  and,  for  convenience'  sake,  was  putting 
them  upon  the  rascals  of  the  schooner's  crew.  The 
negroes  were,  most  of  them,  out  of  the  hold,  and  swarm 
ing  all  round  the  dirty  deck,  with  a  central  throng 
surrounding  Vaughan  and  addressing  him  in  every  dia 
lect  and  patois  of  a  dialect,  from  the  Zulu  click  up  to 
the  Parisian  of  Beledeljereed. 

As  we  came  on  deck,  Vaughan  looked  down  from  a 
hogshead,  on  which  he  had  mounted  in  desperation, 
and  said, — 

"For  God's  love,  is  there  anybody  who  can  make 
these  wretches  understand  something?  The  men  gave 
them  rum,  and  that  did  not  quiet  them.  I  knocked 
that  big  fellow  down  twice,  and  that  did  not  soothe  him. 
And  then  I  talked  Choctaw  to  all  of  them  together;  and 
I'll  be  hanged  if  they  understood  that  as  well  as  they 
understood  the  English." 


30  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

Nolan  said  he  could  speak  Portuguese,  and  one  or 
two  fine-looking  Kroomea  were  dragged  out,  who,  as 
it  had  been  found  already,  had  worked  for  the  Portu 
guese  on  the  coast  at  Fernando  Po. 

"Tell  them  they  are  free,"  said  Vaughan;  "and  tell 
them  that  these  rascals  are  to  be  hanged  as  soon  as 
we  can  get  rope  enough." 

Nolan  "put  that  into  Spanish,"* — that  is,  he  ex 
plained  it  in  such  Portuguese  as  the  Kroomen  could  un 
derstand,  and  they  in  turn  to  such  of  the  negroes  as 
could  understand  them.  Then  there  was  such  a  yell 
of  delight,  clinching  of  fists,  leaping  and  dancing,  kiss 
ing  of  Nolan's  feet,  and  a  general  rush  made  to  the 
hogshead  by  way  of  spontaneous  worship  of  Vaughan 
as  the  deus  ex  machina  of  the  occasion. 

"Tell  them,"  said  Vaughan,  well  pleased,  "that  I  will 
take  them  all  to  Cape  Palmas." 

This  did  not  answer  so  well.  Cape  Palmas  was 
practically  as  far  from  the  homes  of  most  of  them  as 
New  Orleans  or  Rio  Janeiro  was ;  that  is,  they  would  be 

*The  phrase  is  General  Taylor's.  When  Santa  Ana 
brought  up  his  immense  army  at  Buena  Vista,  he  sent 
a  flag  of  truce  to  invite  Taylor  to  surrender.  "Tell 
him  to  go  to  hell,"  said  old  Rough-and-Ready,  "Bliss, 
put  that  into  Spanish."  "Perfect  Bliss"  as  this  accom 
plished  officer,  too  early  lost,  'was  called,  interpreted 
liberally,  replying  to  the  flag,  in  exquisite  Castilian, 
"Say  to  General  Santa  Ana  that,  if  he  wants  us,  he  must 
come  and  take  us."  And  this  is  the  answer  which  has 
gone  into  history. 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  31 

eternally  separated  from  home  there.  And  their  in 
terpreters,  as  we  could  understand,  instantly  said,  "Ah, 
non  Palmas,"  and  began  to  propose  infinite  other  ex 
pedients  in  most  voluble  language.  Vaughan  was 
rather  disappointed  at  this  result  of  his  liberality,  and 
asked  Nolan  eagerly  what  they  said.  The  drops  stood 
on  poor  Nolan's  white  forehead  as  he  hushed  the  men 
down,  and  said, — 

"He  says  'Not  Palmas,'  He  says,  'Take  us  home, 
take  us  to  our  own  country,  take  us  to  our  own  house, 
take  us  to  our  own  pickaninnies  and  our  own  women.' 
He  says  he  has  an  old  father  and  mother,  who  will  die,  if 
they  do  not  see  him.  And  this  one  says  he  left  his  peo 
ple  all  sick,  and  paddled  down  to  Fernando  to  beg  the 
white  doctor  to  come  and  help  them,  and  that  these 
devils  caught  him  in  the  bay  just  in  sight  of  home,  and 
that  he  has  never  seen  anybody  from  home  since  then. 
And  this  one  says,"  choked  out  Nolan,  "that  he  has  not 
heard  a  word  from  his  home  in  six  months,  while  he 
has  been  locked  up  in  an  infernal  barracoon." 

Vaughan  always  said  he  grew  gray  himself  while 
Nolan  struggled  through  this  interpretation.  I,  who 
did  not  understand  anything  of  the  passion  involved  in 
it,  saw  that  the  very  elements  were  melting  with  fervent 
heat,  and  that  something  was  to  pay  somewhere.  Even 
the  negroes  themselves  stopped  howling  as  they  saw 
Nolan's  agony,  and  Vaughan's  almost  equal  agony  of 
sympathy.  As  quick  as  he  could  get  words,  he  said, — 


32  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

"Tell  them  yes,  yes;  tell  them  they  shall  go  to  the 
Mountains  of  the  Moon,  if  they  will.  If  I  sail  the 
schooner  through  the  Great  White  Desert,  they  shall 
go  home!" 

And  after  some  fashion  Nolan  said  so.  And  then 
they  all  fell  to  kissing  him  again  and  wanted  to  rub  his 
nose  with  theirs. 

But  he  could  not  stand  it  long;  and  getting  Vaughan 
to  say  he  might  go  back,  he  beckoned  me  down  into  our 
boat.  As  we  lay  back  in  the  stern-sheets  and  the  men 
gave  way,  he  said  to  me:  "Youngster,  let  that  show 
you  what  it  is  to  be  without  a  family,  without  a  home, 
and  without  a  country.  And  if  you  are  ever  tempted  to 
say  a  word  or  to  do  a  thing  that  shall  put  a  bar  between 
you  and  your  family,  your  home,  and  your  country, 
pray  God  in  His  mercy  to  take  you  that  instant  home  to 
His  own  heaven.  Stick  by  your  family,  boy;  forget 
you  have  a  self,  while  you  do  everything  for  them. 
Think  of  your  home,  boy ;  write  and  send,  and  talk  about 
it.  Let  it  be  nearer  and  nearer  to  your  thought,  the 
farther  you  have  to  travel  from  it;  and  rush  back  to  it, 
when  you  are  free,  as  that  poor  black  slave  is  doing 
now.  And  for  your  country,  boy,"  and  the  words  rat 
tled  in  his  throat,  "and  for  that  flag,"  and  he  pointed  to 
the  ship,  "never  dream  a  dream  but  of  serving  her  as 
she  bids  you,  though  the  service  carry  you  through  a 
thousand  hells.  No  matter  what  happens  to  you,  no 
matter  who  flatters  you  or  who  abuses  you,  never  look 


"HE  SAYS.  'TAKE  US  HOME,  TAKE  US  TO  OUR  OWN*  COUNTRY 

[PAGE  31.] 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  33 

at  another  flag,  never  let  a  night  pass  but  you  pray  God 
to  bless  that  flag.  Remember,  boy,  that  behind  all  these 
men  you  have  to  do  with,  behind  officers,  and  govern 
ment,  and  people  even,  there  is  the  Country  Herself, 
your  Country,  and  that  you  belong  to  Her  as  you  belong 
to  your  own  mother.  Stand  by  Her,  boy,  as  you  would 
stand  by  your  mother,  if  those  devils  there  had  got  hold 
of  her  to-day!" 

I  was  frightened  to  death  by  his  calm,  hard  passion; 
but  I  blundered  out  that  I  would,  by  all  that  was  holy, 
and  that  I  had  never  thought  of  doing  anything  else. 
He  hardly  seemed  to  hear  me;  but  he  did,  almost  in  a 
whisper  say,  "Oh,  if  anybody  had  said  so  to  me  when 
I  was  of  your  age!" 

I  think  it  was  this  half-confidence  of  his,  which  I 
never  abused,  for  I  never  told  this  story  till  now,  which 
afterward  made  us  great  friends.  He  was  very  kind  to 
me.  Often  he  sat  up,  or  even  got  up,  at  night  to  walk 
the  deck  with  me  when  it  was  my  watch.  He  explained 
to  me  a  great  deal  of  my  mathematics,  and  I  owe  to  him 
my  taste  for  mathematics.  He  lent  me  books,  and 
helped  me  about  my  reading.  He  never  alluded  so 
directly  to  his  story  again;  but  from  one  and  another 
officer  I  have  learned,  in  thirty  years,  what  I  am  telling. 
When  we  parted  from  him  in  St.  Thomas  harbor,  at 
the  end  of  our  cruise,  I  was  more  sorry  than  I  can  tell. 
I  was  very  glad  to  meet  him  again  in  1830;  and  later 
in  life,  when  I  thought  I  had  some  influence  in  Wash- 


34  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

ington,  I  moved  heaven  and  earth  to  have  him  dis 
charged.  But  it  was  like  getting  a  ghost  out  of  prison. 
They  pretended  there  was  no  such  man,  and  never  was 
such  a  man.  They  will  say  so  at  the  Department  now! 
Perhaps  they  do  not  know.  It  will  not  be  the  first  thing 
in  the  service  of  which  the  Department  appears  to 
know  nothing! 

There  is  a  story  that  Nolan  met  Burr  once  on  one  of 
our  vessels,  when  a  party  of  Americans  came  on  board 
in  the  Mediterranean.  But  this  I  believe  to  be  a  lie; 
or  rather,  it  is  a  myth,  ben  trovato,  involving  a  tremend 
ous  blowing-up  with  which  he  sunk  Burr, — asking  him 
how  he  liked  to  be  ''without  a  country."  But  it  is  clear, 
from  Burr's  life,  that  nothing  of  the  sort  could  have 
happened;  and  I  mention  this  only  as  an  illustration 
of  the  stories  which  get  a-going  where  there  is  the  least 
mystery  at  bottom. 

So  poor  Philip  Nolan  had  his  wish  fulfilled.  I 
know  but  one  fate  more  dreadful;  it  is  the  fate  reserved 
for  those  men  who  shall  have  one  day  to  exile  them 
selves  from  their  country  because  they  have  attempted 
her  ruin,  and  shall  have  at  the  same  time  to  see  the 
prosperity  and  honor  to  which  she  rises  when  she  has 
rid  herself  of  them  and  their  iniquities.  The  wish  of 
poor  Nolan,  as  we  all  learned  to  call  him,  not  because 
his  punishment  was  too  great,  but  because  his  repent 
ance  was  so  clear,  was  precisely  the  wish  of  every  Bragg 
and  Beauregard  who  broke  a  soldier's  oath  two  years 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  35 

ago,  and  of  every  Maury  and  Barren  who  broke  a  sail 
or's.  I  do  not  know  how  often  they  have  repented.  I 
do  know  that  they  have  done  all  that  in  them  lay  that 
they  might  have  no  country, — that  all  the  honors,  asso 
ciations,  memories,  and  hopes  which  belong  to  "coun 
try"  might  be  broken  up  into  little  shreds  and  distrib 
uted  to  the  winds.  I  know,  too,  that  their  punishment, 
as  they  vegetate  through  what  is  left  of  life  to  them  in 
wretched  Boulognes  and  Leicester  Squares,  where  they 
are  destined  to  upbraid  each  other  till  they  die,  will 
have  all  the  agony  of  Nolan's,  with  the  added  pang 
that  every  one  who  sees  them  will  see  them  to  despise 
and  to  execrate  them.  They  will  have  their  wish,  like 
him. 

For  him,  poor  fellow,  he  repented  of  his  folly,  and 
then,  like  a  man,  submitted  to  the  fate  he  had  asked  for. 
He  never  intentionally  added  to  the  difficulty  or  deli 
cacy  of  the  charge  of  those  who  had  him  in  hold.  Ac 
cidents  would  happen;  but  they  never  happened  from 
his  fault.  Lieutenant  Truxton  told  me  that  when  Texas 
was  annexed,  there  was  a  careful  discussion  among  the 
officers,  whether  they  should  get  hold  of  Nolan's  hand 
some  set  of  maps,  and  cut  Texas  out  of  it, — from  the 
map  of  the  world  and  the  map  of  Mexico.  The  United 
States  had  been  cut  out  when  the  atlas  was  bought 
for  him.  But  it  was  voted,  rightly  enough,  that  to 
do  this  would  be  virtually  to  reveal  to  him  what  had 
happened,  or,  as  Harry  Cole  said,  to  make  him  think 


% 

36  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

Old  Burr  .had  succeeded.  So  it  was  from  no  fault  of 
Nolan's  that  a  great  botch  happened  at  my  own  table, 
when,  for  a  short  time,  I  was  in  command  of  the  George 
Washington  corvette,  on  the  South  American  Station. 
We  were  lying  in  the  La  Plata,  and  some  of  the  officers, 
who  had  been  on  shore,  and  had  just  joined  again, 
were  entertaining  us  with  accounts  of  their  misadvent 
ures  in  riding  the  half-wild  horses  of  Buenos  Ayres. 
Nolan  was  at  table,  and  was  in  an  unusually  bright 
and  talkative  mood.  Some  story  of  a  tumble  reminded 
him  of  an  adventure  of  his  own,  when  he  was  catching 
wild  horses  in  Texas  with  his  brother  Stephen,  at  a 
time  when  he  must  have  been  quite  a  boy.  He  told 
the  story  with  a  good  deal  of  spirit, — so  much  so,  that 
the  silence  which  often  follows  a  good  story  hung  over 
the  table  for  an  instant,  to  be  broken  by  Nolan  himself. 
For  he  asked,  perfectly  unconsciously, — 

"Pray,  what  has  become  of  Texas?  After  the  Mexi 
cans  got  their  independence,  I  thought  that  province  of 
Texas  would  come  forward  very  fast.  It  is  really  one 
of  the  finest  regions  on  earth;  it  is  the  Italy  of  this  con 
tinent.  But  I  have  not  seen  or  heard  a  word  of  Texas 
for  near  twenty  years." 

There  were  two  Texan  officers  at  the  table.  The 
reason  he  had  never  heard  of  Texas  was  that  Texas  and 
her  affairs  had  been  painfully  out  of  his  newspapers 
since  Austin  began  his  settlements;  so  that,  while  he 
read  of  Honduras  and  Tamaulipas,  and,  till  quite  lately, 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  37 

of  California,  this  virgin  province,  in  which  his  brother 
had  traveled  so  far  and,  I  believe,  had  died,  had  ceased 
to  be  with  him.  Waters  and  Williams,  the  two  Texas 
men,  looked  grimly  at  each  other,  and  tried  not  to  laugh. 
Edward  Morris  had  his  attention  attracted  by  the  third 
link  in  the  chain  of  the  captain's  chandelier.  Watrous 
was  seized  with  a  convulsion  of  sneezing.  Nolan  him 
self  saw  that  something  was  to  pay,  he  did  not  know 
what.  And  I,  as  master  of  the  feast,  had  to  say,— 

"Texas  is  out  of  the  map,  Mr.  Nolan.  Have  you 
seen  Captain  Back's  curious  account  of  Sir  Thomas 
Roe's  Welcome?" 

After  that  cruise  I  never  saw  Nolan  again.  I  wrote 
to  him  at  least  twice  a  year,  for  in  that  voyage  we  be 
came  even  confidentially  intimate;  but  he  never  wrote 
to  me.  The  other  men  tell  me  that  in  those  fifteen 
years  he  -aged  very  fast,  as  well  he  might  indeed,  but 
that  he  was  still  the  same  gentle,  uncomplaining,  silent 
sufferer  that  he  ever  was,  bearing  as  best  he  could  his 
self-appointed  punishment, — rather  less  social,  perhaps, 
with  new  men  whom  he  did  not  know,  but  more  anx 
ious,  apparently,  than  ever  to  serve  and  befriend  and 
teach  the  boys,  some  of  whom  fairly  seemed  to  wor 
ship  him.  And  now  it  seems  the  dear  old  fellow  is 
dead.  He  has  found  a  home  at  last,  and  a  country. 

SINCE  writing  this,  and  while  considering  whether 
or  no  I  would  print  it,  as  a  warning  to  the  young 
Nolans  and  Vallandighams  and  Tatnalls  of  to-day  of 


38  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

what  it  is  to  throw  away  a  country,  I  have  received 
from  Danforth,  who  is  on  board  the  Levant,  a  letter 
which  gives  an  account  of  Nolan's  last  hours.  It  re 
moves  all  my  doubts  about  telling  this  story. 

To  understand  the  first  words  of  the  letter,  the  non- 
professional  reader  should  remember  that  after  1817 
the  position  of  every  officer  who  had  Nolan  in  charge 
was  one  of  the  greatest  delicacy.  The  government  had 
failed  to  renew  the  order  of  1807  regarding  him.  What 
was  a  man  to  do?  Should  he  let  him  go?  What,  then, 
if  he  were  called  to  account  by  the  Department  for 
violating  the  order  of  1807?  Should  he  keep  him? 
What,  then,  if  Nolan  should  be  liberated  some  day, 
and  should  bring  an  action  for  false  imprisonment  or 
kidnapping  against  every  man  who  had  had  him  in 
charge?  I  urged  and  pressed  this  upon  Southard,  and 
I  have  reason  to  think  that  other  officers  did  the  same 
thing.  But  the  Secretary  always  said,  as  they  so  often 
do  at  Washington,  that  there  were  no  special  orders  to 
give,  and  that  we  must  act  on  our  own  judgment.  That 
means,  "If  you  succeed,  you  will  be  sustained;  if  you 
fail,  you  will  be  disavowed."  Well,  as  Danforth  says, 
all  that  is  over  now,  though  I  do  not  know  but  I  ex 
pose  myself  to  a  criminal  prosecution  on  the  evidence 
of  the  very  revelation  I  am  making. 

Here  is  the  letter: 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  39 

"Levant,  2°  2"  S.  @.  131°  W. 
DEAR  FRED, — I  try  to  find  heart  and  life  to  tell  you 
that  it  is  all  over  with  dear  old  Nolan.  I  have  been 
with  him  on  this  voyage  more  than  I  ever  was,  and  I 
can  understand  wholly  now  the  way  in  which  you 
used  to  speak  of  the  dear  old  fellow.  I  could  see 
that  he  was  not  strong,  but  I  had  no  idea  that  the 
end  was  so  near.  The  doctor  had  been  watching  him 
very  carefully,  and  yesterday  morning  came  to  me  and 
told  me  that  Nolan  was  not  so  well,  and  had  not  left 
his  state-room, — a  thing  I  never  remember  before.  He 
had  let  the  doctor  come  and  see  him  as  he  lay  there, — 
the  first  time  the  doctor  had  been  in  the  state-room, 
and  he  said  he  should  like  to  see  me.  Oh,  dear!  do 
you  remember  the  mysteries  we  boys  used  to  invent 
about  his  room,  in  the  old  Intrepid  days?  Well,  I 
went  in,  and  there,  to  be  sure,  the  poor  fellow  lay  in 
his  berth,  smiling  pleasantly  as  he  gave  me  his  hand, 
but  looking  very  frail.  I  could  not  help  a  glance 
round,  which  showed  me  what  a  little  shrine  he  had 
made  of  the  box  he  was  lying  in.  The  stars  and  stripes 
were  triced  up  above  and  around  a  picture  of  Wash 
ington,  and  he  had  painted  a  majestic  eagle,  with  light 
nings  blazing  from  his  beak  and  his  foot  just  clasping 
the  whole  globe,  which  his  wings  overshadowed.  The 
dear  old  boy  saw  my  glance,  and  said,  with  a  sad  smile, 
'Here,  you  see,  I  have  a  country!'  And  then  he  pointed 
to  the  foot  of  his  bed,  where  I  had  not  seen  before  a 


40  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

great  map  of  the  United  States,  as  he  had  drawn  it  from 
memory,  and  which  he  had  there  to  look  upon  as  he 
lay.  Quaint,  queer  old  names  were  on  it,  in  large  let 
ters:  'Indiana  Territory,'  'Mississippi  Territory,'  and 
'Louisiana,'  as  I  supposed  our  fathers  learned  such 
things;  but  the  old  fellow  had  patched  in  Texas,  too; 
he  had  carried  his  western  boundary  all  the  way  to 
the  Pacific,  but  on  that  shore  he  had  defined  nothing. 

"  'Oh,  Danforth,'  he  said,  'I  know  I  am  dying.  I 
cannot  get  home.  Surely  you  will  tell  me  something 
now? — Stop  I  stopl  Do  not  speak  till  I  say  what  I  am 
sure  you  know,  that  there  is  not  in  this  ship,  that  there 
is  not  in  America, — God  bless  her! — a  more  loyal  man 
than  I.  There  cannot  be  a  man  who  loves  the  old  flag 
as  I  do,  or  prays  for  it  as  I  do,  or  hopes  for  it  as  I  do. 
There  are  thirty-four  stars  in  it  now,  Danforth.  I 
thank  God  for  that,  though  I  do  not  know  what  their 
names  are.  There  has  never  been  one  taken  away;  I 
thank  God  for  that.  I  know  by  that,  that  there  has 
never  been  any  successful  Burr.  Oh,  Danforth,  Dan 
forth,'  he  sighed  out,  'how  like  a  wretched  night's  dream 
a  boy's  idea  of  personal  fame  or  of  separate  sovereignty 
seems,  when  one  looks  back  on  it  after  such  a  life  as 
mine!  But  tell  me, — tell  me  something, — tell  me 
-everything,  Danforth,  before  I  die!' 

"Ingham,  I  swear  to  you  that  I  felt  like  a  monster 
that  I  had  not  told  him  everything  before.  Danger  or 
no  danger,  delicacy  or  no  delicacy,  who  was  I  that 


"TELL   MK  TIIKIK    KAMI'S,"    UK  SAID.   AND    UK    I'dlNTKD  TO  THK  STARS 
ON   Till-:   I'l. AC,.     "THK  I. AST   I    KNOW    IS  OHIO." 

[PAGE  4' -I 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  41 

I  should  have  been  acting  the  tyrant  all  this  time  over 
this  dear,  sainted  old  man,  who  had  years  ago  expiated, 
in  his  whole  manhood's  life  the  madness  of  a  boy's  trea 
son?  'Mr.  Nolan,'  said  I,  'I  will  tell  you  everything 
you  ask  about.  Only,  where  shall  I  begin?' 

"Oh,  the  blessed  smile  that  crept  over  his  white  face! 
and  he  pressed  my  hand  and  said,  'God  bless  you!'  Tell 
me  their  names,'  he  said,  and  he  pointed  to  the  stars 
on  the  flag.  The  last  I  know  is  Ohio.  My  father 
lived  in  Kentucky.  But  I  have  guessed  Michigan  and 
Indiana  and  Mississippi,— that  was  where  Fort  Adams 
is, — they  make  twenty.  But  where  are  your  other 
fourteen?  You  have  not  cut  up  any  of  the  old  ones,  I 
hope?' 

"Well,  that  was  not  a  bad  text,  and  I  told  him  the 
names,  in  as  good  order  as  I  could,  and  he  bade  me  take 
down  his  beautiful  map  and  draw  them  in  as  I  best 
could  with  my  pencil.  He  was  wild  with  delight  about 
Texas,  told  me  how  his  brother  died  there;  he  had 
marked  a  gold  cross  where  he  supposed  his  brother's 
grave  was ;  and  he  had  guessed  at  Texas.  Then  he  was 
delighted  as  he  saw  California  and  Oregon; — that,  he 
said,  he  had  suspected  partlyj  because  he  had  never 
been  permitted  to  land  on  that  shore,  though  the  ships 
were  there  so  much.  'And  the  men,'  said  he,  laugh 
ing,  'brought  off  a  good  deal  besides  furs.'  Then  he 
went  back — heavens,  how  far! — to  ask  about  the 
Chesapeake,  and  what  was  done  to  Barren  for  surrend- 


42  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

ering  her  to  the  Leopard,  and  whether  Burr  ever  tried 
again, — and  he  ground  his  teeth  with  the  only  passion 
he  showed.  But  in  a  moment  that  was  over,  and  he 
said,  'God  forgive  me,  for  I  am  sure  I  forgive  him.' 
Then  he  asked  about  the  old  war, — told  me  the  true 
story  of  his  serving  the  gun  the  day  we  took  the  Java, 
— asked  about  dear  old  David  Porter,  as  he  called  him. 
Then  he  settled  down  more  quietly,  and  very  happily, 
to  hear  me  tell  in  an  hour  the  history  of  fifty  years. 

"How  I  wished  it  had  been  somebody  who  knew 
something!  But  I  did  as  well  as  I  could.  I  told 
him  of  the  English  war.  I  told  him  about  Fulton  and 
the  steamboat  beginning.  I  told  him  about  old  Scott 
and  Jackson ;  told  him  all  I  could  think  about  the  Miss 
issippi,  and  New  Orleans,  and  Texas,  and  his  own  old 
Kentucky.  And  do  you  think  he  asked  who  was  in 
command  of  the  'Legion  of  the  West'  I  told  him  it 
was  a  very  gallant  officer,  named  Grant  and  that,  by 
our  last  news,  he  was  about  to.  establish  his  headquarters 
at  Vicksburg.  Then,  Where  was  Vicksburg?'  I 
worked  that  out  on  the  map;  it  was  about  a  hundred 
miles,  more  or  less,  above  his  old  Fort  Adams;  and  I 
thought  Fort  Adams  must  be  a  ruin  now.  'It  must  be 
at  old  Vick's  plantation,'  said  he ;  'well  that  is  a  change !' 

"I  tell  you,  Ingham,  it  was  a  hard  thing  to  condense 
the  history  of  half  a  century  into  that  talk  with  a  sick 
man.  And  I  do  not  now  know  what  I  told  him, — 
of  emigration,  and  the  means  of  it, — of  steamboats  and 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  43 

railroads  and  telegraphs, — of  inventions  and  books  and 
literature, — of  the  colleges  and  West  Point  and  the 
Naval  School, — but  with  the  queerest  interruptions  that 
ever  you  heard.  You  see  it  was  Robinson  Crusoe  ask 
ing  all  the  accumulated  questions  of  fifty-six  years! 

"I  remember  he  asked,  all  of  a  sudden,  who  was 
President  now;  and  when  I  told  him,  he  asked  if  Old 
Abe  was  General  Benjamin  Lincoln's  son.  He  said  he 
met  old  General  Lincoln,  when  he  was  quite  a  boy 
himself,  at  some  Indian  treaty.  I  said  no,  that  Old 
Abe  was  a  Kentuckian  like  himself,  but  I  could  not  tell 
him  of  what  family;  he  had  worked  up  from  the  ranks. 
'Good  for  him!'  cried  Nolan;  'I  am  glad  of  that.  As 
I  have  brooded  and  wondered,  I  have  thought  our 
danger  was  in  keeping  up  those  regular  successions 
in  the  first  families.'  Then  I  got  talking  about  my  visit 
to  Washington.  I  told  him  of  meeting  the  Oregon 
Congressman,  Harding;  I  told  him  about  Smithsonian 
and  the  exploring  Expedition;  I  told  him  about  the 
Capitol, — and  the  statues  for  the  pediment, — and  Craw 
ford's  Liberty, — and  Greenough's  Washington:  In- 
gham,  I  told  him  everything  I  could  think  of  that  would 
show  the  grandure  of  his  country  and  its  prosperity; 
but  I  could  not  make  up  my  mouth  to  tell  him  a  word 
about  this  infernal  Rebellion!* 

"And  he  drank  it  in,  and  enjoyed  it  as  I  cannot  tell 
you.  He  grew  more  and  more  silent,  yet  I  never 

*This  story  was  written  in  1863. — Editor. 


44  The  Man  Without  a  Country 

thought  he  was  tired  or  faint.  I  gave  him  a  glass  of 
water,  but  he  just  wet  his  lips,  and  told  me  not  to  go 
away.  Then  he  asked  me  to  bring  the  Presbyterian 
'Book  of  Public  Prayer,'  which  lay  there,  and  said,  with 
a  smile,  that  it  would  open  at  the  right  place, — and  so 
it  did.  There  was  his  double  red  mark  down  the  page ; 
and  I  knelt  down  and  read,  and  he  repeated  with  me, 
Tor  ourselves  and  our  country,  O  gracious  God,  we 
thank  Thee,  that,  notwithstanding  our  manifold  trans 
gressions  of  Thy  holy  laws,  Thou  hast  continued  to  us 
Thy  marvellous  kindness,' — and  so  to  the  end  of  that 
thanksgiving.  Then  he  turned  to  the  end  of  the  same 
book,  and  I  read  the  words  more  familiar  to  me:  'Most 
heartily  we  beseech  Thee  with  Thy  favor  to  behold  and 
bless  Thy  servant,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  all  others  in  authority,' — and  the  rest  of  the  Episco 
pal  collect.  'Danforth,'  said  he,  'I  have  repeated  those 
prayers  night  and  morning,  it  is  now  fifty-five  years.' 
And  then  he  said  he  would  go  to  sleep.  He  bent  me 
down  over  him  and  kissed  me;  and  he  said,  'Look  in  my 
Bible,  Danforth,  when  I  am  gone.'  And  I  went  away. 

"But  I  had  no  thought  it  was  the  end.  I  thought  he 
was  tired  and  would  sleep.  I  knew  he  was  happy, 
and  I  wanted  him  to  be  alone. 

"But  in  an  hour,  when  the  doctor  went  in  gently, 
he  found  Nolan  had  breathed  his  life  away  with  a 
smile.  He  had  something  pressed  close  to  his  lips.  It 
was  his  father's  badge  of  the  Order  of  Cincinnati. 


The  Man  Without  a  Country  45 

"We  looked  in  his  Bible,  and  there  was  a  slip  of 
paper,  at  the  place  where  he  had  marked  the  text, — 

"  'They  desire  a  country,  even  a  heavenly:  wherefore 
God  is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  God:  for  he  hath 
prepared  for  them  a  city.' 

"On  this  slip  of  paper  he  had  written, — 

"  'Bury  me  in  the  sea;  it  has  been  my  home,  and  I 
love  it.  But  will  not  some  one  set  up  a  stone  for  my 
memory  at  Fort  Adams  or  at  Orleans,  that  my  disgrace 
may  not  be  more  than  I  ought  to  bear?  Say  on  it, — 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

PHILIP  NOLAN, 

LIEUTENANT 

IN  THE  ARMY  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"  'He  loved  his  country  as  no  other  man  has  loved  her; 
but  no  man  deserved  less  at  her  hands.' ' 


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